How does art get younger while we get older? Part I

When I take a close look at Udom Taephanich, I notice that he looks a lot older than I remembered.

I believed that most people in their 20s, including me, grew up with Udom’s stand-up comedy known as ‘Diew’. Even though we have witnessed a shift from the age of DVDs into Netflix, his show remains popular. The DVDs of his show that I have been watching repeatedly have been placed somewhere in my house. After binge-watching Diew 1 to Diew 12, I realized that I am familiar with Udom, the one who appears on the screen. Over time, he has transformed from a little young boy into a grown man. However, when I met him personally, I found that there are several things that you are not able to see on the screen including the wrinkles around his eyes, his aging skin, his eye expressions, and his calmness.

In terms of his art, I have witnessed something different. At the corner of his studio, there is a big colorful artwork. When I look at it closely, this work happens to be an assemblage of a variety of paintings. Showcased in a cabinet are monster statues. Each of them wearing accessories that can be switched according to your taste. Not to mention the pieces are adorable human-sized monster statues displayed around his studio.

Udom likes to wander around in his studio and carries a monster sculpture and places it next to him. Then, he grabs a paper stained with color and uses it to continue his painting. In his 50’s, everything in Udom’s studio seems like a playground.

The question that we plan to discuss today is how art gets younger while we get older.

I believe that to understand a person’s work of art, you must understand their lives first. What was their childhood like? What have they experienced? How do they feel at a certain age? What do they believe in? What did they learn? Everything is a part of one’s life, and most artists make art from their experiences. 

“When I was young, art was the only subject that I would not get punished by a teacher”, Udom said with a smile. “As a kid, I moved around a lot from Surin province to Ban Bueng of Chonburi province and my studies were inconsistent. I didn’t have any books. Unlike my friends who wore school uniforms every day, I only wore it from time to time. In addition to this inconsistency, I had never done any homework. I didn’t know how to do it. My mother knew only how to cook Som Tum. I had no one who could assist me with my homework. Therefore, art is the only subject that my teacher will not punish me.”

Since then, art has become his friend. It is a comfort zone where a kid who couldn’t make anything good through the eyes of adults can do something that is worth appreciating. “Art propelled me to be recognized”, he mentioned this when he told a story of when his papier-mâché had been selected to be showcased at school. Though this was only a small work when he recollected it.

As a kid, he felt that art had no rules. It is about imaginative management. At that young age, we didn’t even recognize that it is called ‘Imagination’. It was blended into real life. It is a possibility. Therefore, through the eyes of children, art is dramatically broad and always comes with enjoyment.

Having graduated from secondary school, his passion in art had driven him to study in Art Vocational College and Poh-Chang Academy of Arts thereafter following his friends’ suggestion. At the art school, he was still not good at it. It was just the shift in places and time, however, he no longer got punished. Meanwhile, the punishment has transformed into the word ‘Don’t’.

“Looking back, Thai kids have grown up with the word ‘Don’t’, ” he explained. This word has extended to our life as well as art. Art that used to be broad during primary school had become narrow. ‘Don’t do this’ ‘Don’t color like this’ ‘Don’t compose your art like that’. It seemed the role of imagination had been taken over.

Nevertheless, imagination had taken its role again when he was in his 20s. In front of a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat at Centre de Pompidou, Paris stood Udom. Basquiat’s artistic style reminded him of children’s handwriting. It looked like an artwork created by someone not older than a 7-year-old kid. He looked at this painting for hours. Then, he wandered around the place and eventually came back to this painting.

Even though society taught him about the ‘Do’s’ and ‘Don’ts in art, in front of a Basquiat’s painting at Centre de Pompidou, it reminded him that art has no rules and through art, you can express your young heart anytime.

At that time, to paint like a kid became his attempt in making art. “If anyone criticized that my art looked like it was created by a kid, I would be grateful as painting like a kid is considered as difficult.” He stated this in 1997 or around 25 years ago. Today, when I asked him again, he answered and giggled, “It was wrong since the first attempt as children have never attempted to be like children”

Of course, children have never attempted it. There are no rules, directions or society that are in control of what art should be like, how they should create it, or how they should compose it. The children have never made art according to the rules. They have never attempted to follow the rules as there are no rules in the first place.

Even though Udom attempted to paint like a kid, he didn’t find a place where he can express his imagination truthfully. Perhaps, he attempted to paint like a child while his head was focused on color theories and composition in art.

In addition to attempting to be a kid, in his 20s when most people are seeking fame and acceptance, Udom was among those who would like to be accepted as an artist in a time where the country had clear definitions of art and artist. Art was a virtue. Artists had to wear dramatic clothes and live their lives to the fullest. We can say that all of these are very tough efforts that he had to achieve while making his way to stand-up comedy at the same time.

“It started to feel liberating when I felt that I no longer needed to be accepted.” It was not just about art, but it was my life as well. “On stage, I felt like I had more oxygen to breathe in. The atmosphere offstage became less serious than it used to be. My art has also become more relaxed when I stopped thinking about the need to be accepted as an artist. I found that it was the real trap.”

For me, the trap that Udom stated looks like a rectangular-shaped box that is framed by social rules where social measurements have been implemented seriously.

Indeed, if you occasionally take this box out, it will make you feel like you have more air to breathe.

October 2020

Pasinee Pramunwong

Please stay tuned for Part II on our website. While waiting, you can visit ‘I Need a Life Coach’ on view at RCB Galleria 2 on 2nd floor. Free entry.